U.S.EntryintoWWI

Document A: Woodrow Wilson Speech #1

The effect of the war upon the United States will depend upon what American citizens say and do. Every man who really loves America will act and speak in the true spirit of neutrality, which is the spirit of impartiality and fairness and friendliness to all concerned. The spirit of the nation in this critical matter will be determined largely by what individuals and society and those gathered in public meetings do and say, upon what newspapers and magazines contain, upon what ministers utter in their pulpits, and men proclaim as their opinions upon the street. The people of the United States are drawn from many nations, and chiefly from the nations now at war. It is natural and inevitable that there should be the utmost variety of sympathy and desire among them with regard to the issues and circumstances of the conflict. Some will wish one nation, others another, to succeed in the momentous struggle. It will be easy to excite passion and difficult to allay it. Those responsible for exciting it will assume a heavy responsibility, responsibility for no less a thing than that the people of the United States, whose love of their country and whose loyalty to its government should unite them as Americans all, bound in honor and affection to think first of her and her interests, may be divided in camps of hostile opinion, hot against each other, involved in the war itself in impulse and opinion if not in action.

Such divisions amongst us would be fatal to our peace of mind and might seriously stand in the way of the proper performance of our duty as the one great nation at peace, the one people holding itself ready to play a part of impartial mediation and speak the counsels of peace and accommodation, not as a partisan, but as a friend.

I venture, therefore, my fellow countrymen, to speak a solemn word of warning to you against that deepest, most subtle, most essential breach of neutrality which may spring out of partisanship, out of passionately taking sides. The United States must be neutral in fact, as well as in name, during these days that are to try men's souls. We must be impartial in thought, as well as action, must put a curb upon our sentiments, as well as upon every transaction that might be construed as a preference of one party to the struggle before another.

Source: President Woodrow Wilson, in a speech before Congress, August 19, 1914.

Document B: Woodrow Wilson Speech #2

Gentlemen of the Congress:

I have called the Congress into extraordinary session because there are serious, very serious choices of policy to be made, and made immediately, which it was neither right nor constitutionally permissible that I should assume the responsibility of making.The German policy has swept every restriction aside. Ships of every kind, whatever their flag, their character, their cargo, their destination, their errand, have been ruthlessly sent to the bottom of the ocean without warning. American ships have been sunk, American lives taken.

…I am not now thinking of the loss of property involved, immense and serious as that is, but only of the wanton and wholesale destruction of the lives of noncombatants, men, women, and children, engaged in pursuits which have always, even in the darkest periods of modern history, been deemed innocent and legitimate. Property can be paid for; the lives of peaceful and innocent people can not be. The present German submarine warfare against commerce is a warfare against mankind.

It is a war against all nations. American ships have been sunk, American lives taken, in ways which it has stirred us very deeply to learn of, but the ships and people of other neutral and friendly nations have been sunk and overwhelmed in the waters in the same way. There has been no discrimination. The challenge is to all mankind. Each nation must decide for itself how it will meet it. The choice we make for ourselves must be made with a moderation of counsel and a temperateness of judgment befitting our character and our motives as a nation. We must put excited feeling away. Our motive will not be revenge or the victorious assertion of the physical might of the nation, but only the vindication of right, of human right, of which we are only a single champion.

I advise that the Congress declare the recent actions of the Imperial German Government to be, in fact, nothing less than war against the Government and people of the United States. Neutrality is no longer feasible or desirable where the peace of the world is involved.

The world must be made safe for democracy. We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek not material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make. We are but one of the champions of the rights of mankind. It is a fearful, but right thing to lead this great peaceful people to war. We shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts – for democracy, for the right of [people] to have a voice in their own government, for the rights and liberties of small nations.

Source: President Woodrow Wilson, in a speech before Congress, April 2, 1917.

Guiding Questions

  1. In the first speech, does Wilson think the United States should enter WWI? Why or why not?
  1. In the second speech. Does Wilson think the United States should enter WWI? Why or why not?
  2. Contextualization: Use the 1917 speech to “imagine the setting.” (a) What does Wilson accuse Germany of doing? (b) Do you think this is a good reason to go to war? (c) What additional information would you need to have before making a decision?
  1. Close reading: Re-read the last two paragraphs of the 1917 speech. Why do you think Wilson added these paragraphs? How do you think these words made Americans feel?

DocumentC:HistorianHowardZinn(Excerpted)

PresidentWoodrowWilsonhadpromisedthattheUnitedStates wouldstayneutralinthewar…ButinAprilof1917,theGermanshad announcedtheywouldhavetheirsubmarinessinkanyshipbringing suppliestotheirenemies;andtheyhad sunkanumberofmerchant vessels.WilsonnowsaidhemuststandbytherightofAmericansto travelonmerchantshipsinthewarzone…

AsRichardHofstadterpointsout(TheAmericanPoliticalTradition): “Thiswas rationalizationoftheflimsiestsort...TheBritishhadalso beenintrudingontherightsof Americancitizensonthehighseas, butWilsonwasnotsuggestingwegotowarwiththem…

TheUnitedStatesclaimedtheLusitaniacarriedaninnocent cargo, and thereforethetorpedoingwasamonstrousGermanatrocity. Actually,theLusitaniawasheavilyarmed:itcarried1,248casesof3- inchshells,4,927boxesofcartridges(1,000roundsineachbox),and2,000morecasesofsmall-armsammunition…TheBritishand American governments lied about the cargo…

Prosperitydependedmuchonforeignmarkets,itwasbelievedbythe leadersofthecountry.In1897,privateforeigninvestmentsofthe UnitedStatesamountedto$700milliondollars.By1914,theywere$3.5billion…

WithWorldWarI,Englandbecamemoreandmoreamarketfor Americangoodsandforloansatinterest.J.P.MorganandCompany actedasagentsfortheAlliesandwhen,in1915,Wilsonliftedtheban onprivatebankloanstotheAllies,Morgancouldnowbeginlending moneyinsuchgreatamountsastobothmakegreatprofitandtie AmericanfinancecloselytotheinterestofaBritishvictoryinthewar againstGermany.

Source:Howard Zinn,APeople’s HistoryoftheUnitedStates,New York: HarperCollins,1980.

GuidingQuestionsforTextbook:

  1. WhatareTWOreasonsthatyourtextbookgivesforwhytheU.S.enteredthewar?
  1. BasedonthereasonsinWilson’s1917speechandinthetextbook,doyouthinkthe UnitedStateshadgoodreasonsforenteringWWI?

GuidingQuestionsforHowardZinn:

  1. Sourcing: Beforereadingthedocument,whatdoyoupredictHowardZinnwillsayabouttheUnitedStates’reasonsforenteringWWI?
  1. Closereading; WhydoesZinnclaimthatWilsonmadeaflimsyargument?
  1. Closereading: WhatdoesZinnsuggestaretherealreasonstheUnitedStates enteredthewar?
  1. Closereading: WhatevidencedoesZinnprovidetosupporthisclaimsthatthe UnitedStateswasmotivatedbyotherreasons(besidesGermanattacksonU.S.ships)?
  1. DoyoufindZinn’sargumentconvincing? Whyorwhynot?